Najwa Sheikh Ahmed, Nusierat Camp, Gaza Strip

The sky is still blue as I remember, I haven’t seen it since three days, I almost forgot how beautiful it looks in a sunny day in winter, I wish I cold walk on the beach and enjoy some peace.

I moved with my husband, my kids to his family house since three days, we left our beach apartment where the view is very nice to find a secure place, where the kids can not hear the loud sound of the explosions and wake up frightened and crying. I can not give them any assurances that tomorrow will be better for them, and that they will be save. They stopped asking us when this going to have an end, and when they can be back to their normal life as children.

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islamboutique.fr

These young Israelis in the photo are watching as the Israeli army carrries out its deadly bombardment of Gaza. They look like they're enjoying it and having fun. They're watching it, using binoculars; they're laughing, and are chatting about what they're seeing...No, it's not the New Year Eve's fireworks...It's a festive moment though -they're enjoying the extermination of the Palestinian people! [Freely translated from islamboutique.fr]

(It reminds one of "the dancing Israelis" on 9/11, with their high fives and their evil gloating and schadenfreude.)

You want to know what the young people in the photo are so happy & gleeful about? After CANA, you should know precisely what make some Israelis tic. In case you want to make sure you do, just click on the link below and find out...

http://portail.islamboutique.fr/gaza2008/

[Editors]

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

On 29 February last year the BBC's website reported deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatening a "holocaust" on Gaza. Headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'" the story would undergo nine revisions in the next twelve hours. Before the day was over the headline would read "Gaza militants 'risking disaster.'" (The story has since been revised again with an exculpatory note added soft-pedaling Vilnai's comments). An Israeli official threatening "holocaust" may be unpalatable to those who routinely invoke its specter to deflect criticism from the state's criminal behavior. With the "holocaust" reference redacted, the new headline shifted culpability neatly into the hands of "Gaza militants" instead.

One could argue that the BBC's radical alteration of the story reflects its susceptibility to the kind of inordinate pressure the Israel lobby's well-oiled flak machine is notorious for. However, as will be demonstrated in subsequent examples, this story is exceptional only insofar as it reported accurately in the first place something that could bear negatively on Israel's image. The norm is reflexive self-censorship.

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Chris Gelken

It is hard to imagine how much worse the situation could get, but the confrontation in Gaza could see a dangerous escalation in the coming days as Iran threatens to break the Israeli blockade and deliver urgently needed medical supplies and other aid to the coastal strip.

If the ground offensive currently underway in Gaza becomes a full-fledged occupation with the resultant removal of Hamas from authority, then the arrival of the MV Iran Shahed in the Mediterranean will be something of an anti-climax. Too little, too late. But while even a small stretch of beach remains under Palestinian control, there is the frightening possibility that Iranian Red Crescent volunteers might attempt a landing.

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Akram al-Sattari

Doctor Mads Gilbert is a member of a Norwegian triage medical team present in the besieged Gaza Strip. The team has exposed that Israel has used depleted uranium weapons in its war on the impoverished territory which is home to 1.5 million Palestinians. He described the conditions inside Gaza in an exclusive Press TV interview.

Press TV: What can you tell about the uranium findings?

Dr. Mads Gilbert: The findings about the uranium I cannot tell you much about, but I can tell you that we have clear evidence that the Israelis are using a new type of very high explosive weapons which are called Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) and are made out of a tungsten alloy. These weapons have an enormous power to explode. The power of the explosion dissipates very quickly and the strength does not travel long, maybe 10 meters, but those humans who are hit by this explosion, this pressure wave are cut in pieces.

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Khalid Amayreh

“This is a translation of an Arabic interview with the author”

Question: Israel says it is only defending itself against recurrent attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian “terrorist” organizations?

Answer: All aggressors say they are only defending themselves. Nazi Germany said it was defending itself. Israel is the last country in the world that is fit to complain about terrorism. After all, Israel represents, encapsulates and embodies terror in its ugliest and most nefarious forms.

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Andrew Hughes

In this handout photo provided by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is briefed by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak (R) and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (2nd L) on the strategic balance of power in the Middle East as they sit in an Israeli Air Force helicopter before taking off for the southern town of Sderot July 23, 2008 from a helipad in Jerusalem. Obama defended his proposal to negotiate with Iran, saying he'd use "big sticks and big carrots" to turn the country's leaders away from developing nuclear weapons. (Photo by Getty Images Europe)

It's no small wonder that President Elect Barack Obama is keeping silent on the current round of wanton slaughter and destruction in Palestine. After all, he had already made his position crystal clear.

It's no small wonder that President Elect Barack Obama is keeping silent on the current round of wanton slaughter and destruction in Palestine. After all he had already made his position crystal clear when he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, otherwise known as "The Israeli Lobby", on June 4th of last year. There had been doubts amongst a portion of Jewish voters as to his fealty to Israel but in his opening statement he put those fears to rest.

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Stephen Lendman

On June 16, 2008, noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explained "The Israeli Recipe for 2008: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleaning in the West Bank." He wrote:

"Not long ago, I claimed that Israel is employing genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip."

After re-thinking this highly-charged term, he concluded with even stronger conviction:

"it is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza because of its repeated atrocities now greater than ever."

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Sameh A. Habeeb

A Palestinian woman wounded in Israeli missile strikes - yalibnan.com

Breaking News: Five Palestinians killed in a bombing targeted Mus'ab Bin Umair mosque northern Gaza Strip.

Breaking News: Five Palestinians from one family "Bakr" killed west of Gaza City. The mother was killed along with her 4 children in F16 rocket.

Breaking News: Around 17 peoples killed in Al atatra family in Bait lahia town north of Gaza. Amongest them several children, two brothers, 20-year-old and many old men who were all killed by one rocket. Israeli tanks prevents ambulances from reaching wounded people in the same place. Among the recognized victims; Osama sliman, Mueen Abu aljdya, Ahmed Abu sltan, Hamaoda Abu sultan, Ali Al sous, Muhammad Al atar, Ahmed Tantish and one from Al shalfooh family.

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Ilan Pappe

Palestinians in Israel protest Israel's massacres in Gaza.

My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice -- even louder than the one heard during the criminal attack against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel is engulfed once more with [self-]righteous fury that translates into destructive policies in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity is not just annoying, it is a subject worth dwelling on, if one wants to understand the international immunity for the massacre that rages on in Gaza.

It is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of darker days in 1930s Europe. Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel's massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas. These are the same scholars who demonized the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an earlier era and delegitimized his Fatah movement during the second Palestinian intifada.

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Jeremy R. Hammond

Photo by Mohammed Omer

Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

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Kenny's Sideshow

Israeli incursion into Gaza begins.

'Poor' Israel has to send its own troops into foreign territory. I suppose it was too much to ask the US to do it for them this time.

The Gaza offensive, as bad as it is, is small compared to how the US has been bribed and blackmailed by Israel to do their killing for them, spending our money to do so and to break up the middle east for Israel's benefit.

Unless we do something to stop this, we are still only in the beginnings of the zionist criminals and their willing agents for domination of not only the middle east but of the world. Our taxes and our lives pay for this.

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Mary Sojourner

The unconscionable attacks of Israel upon Gaza can be seen as the action of a sociopathic state upon a helpless victim. While the diagnosis of sociopathy is commonly reserved for the individual, it may be used to describe an entire society in a way that illuminates the behavior of that society towards another group of people. Sociopathy is a social concept by definition, and for this reason can be expanded to describe the nature of an entire society.

The ruling quality of the sociopath is a complete lack of empathy towards the Other. The sociopath is incapable of feeling for other people. The Israelis have kept the Gaza strip blockaded, hermetically sealed for a year and a half, causing untold suffering for the people of Gaza. The lack of empathy for so many helpless human beings is sociopathic. Israel has long held its status as a sociopathic state.

At the core of the sociopath’s personality is a deep-seated rage which is repressed and cut off from the conscious mind but which directs the sociopath’s actions. It is this rage which makes the sociopath incapable of feeling empathy for the Other, and which fuels the mercilessness with which he treats others. This rage is the only valid emotion a sociopath has. It accounts for his short temper, his consistent overreaction to the smallest setbacks, and the ruthlessness with which he treats others when they do not bend to his will.

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William Blum

The Pentagon pushes hard for a large increase in troops for Afghanistan. Barack Obama has been calling for the same since well before the November election. Listen to the drumbeats telling us that the security of the United States and the Free World necessitates increased action in this place called Afghanistan. As urgent as Iraq 2003, it is. Why? What is there about this backward, reactionary, woman-hating, failed state that warrants hundreds of deaths of American and NATO soldiers? That justifies tens of thousands of Afghan deaths since the first US bombing attacks in October 2001? In early December, reports the Washington Post, "standing at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the United States is making a 'sustained commitment' to that country, one that will last 'some protracted period of time'." The story goes on to discuss $300 million in construction projects at this one base to house additional American forces, erecting guard stations and towers and perimeter fencing around the barracks area, putting in vehicle inspection areas, administration offices, cold-storage warehouse, a new power plant, electrical and water distribution systems, communications lines, housing for 1,500 personnel who sustain the systems, maintenance shops, warehouses[1] ... America's wealth bleeds out endlessly.

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PCAS

Gaza Strip,3, January, 2oo9 -In the recent reporting period of this report, Israeli army is using all naval, ground and air forces to attack Gaza. With the early hours of Saturday morning, Israeli army started to shell and launch heavy air strikes against Gaza. Most of the bombings targeted buildings, farming and agricultural fields. The bombings range dramatically increased midday leaving 5 dead and ten other wounded.

The heavy deadly bombings focused on four areas in Khan Yonis, Gaza and the north cities. The artillery shells engaged in the continued strikes with more new tactics. New shells are used for the first time. Eyewitnesses reported that new shells explode before landing on the targets making more small bombs. The shells are expected to be cluster bombs.

More Israeli new weapons are used today. Palestinians in Khan Yonis massively called the radio stations and health centers to report on a bad smell goes out from the rockets in Khan Yonis City. People are afraid this kind of weapon is shells enriched with Uranium and nuclear elements.

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